The Art Of Setting SMART Goals For Your Entrepreneurial Lifestyle

What goals do you currently have for your brand?

Are they SMART goals?

One of the essential aspects of setting SMART goals is that they encompass the ‘why.’ If you say, “I want to make more money,” it isn’t motivating enough, right?

However, if you add the ‘why,’ then it makes the whole difference.

So, saying “I want to make $10,000 to go on a vacation next month” is motivating enough.

There are more tricks to setting SMART goals. However, for now, let me ask you why you would need to set goals?

Well, here are some reasons to do that:

• It gives direction in life

When you set a goal, you also develop a structure that will enable you to achieve that goal. If you want to make six figures passive income, you will need to highlight all the steps you will take to get there.

As you highlight the steps, you are literally setting a new direction for your life and business. That’s what you will be doing every day. You will no longer hang out with friends because you have things to do to accomplish your goals.  

• It gives clarity in decision making

SMART business goals help in decision-making. You will have had a thorough critique of yourself, your priorities, and objectives, even with personal goals.

You will know what’s important at the moment and what’s not. That means everything you do should make you ask yourself, ‘is it helping me attain my dream life?’

If someone comes with a suggestion to go clubbing and another suggests going to meet a networking event, you will always make a decision fast if you have goals to accomplish.

• Makes you focused

There should be something you want to accomplish before the end of today that’s making you focussed. Focused people have goals to attain and dreams to accomplish. Focused people are powerful people.

What are you focused on at the moment? Is it in line with the goals you wanted to achieve this year? If not, then you should shift your focus.

If you have an objective to fulfill within a time frame, you will be focused on it. Even though distractions will be there, but at least a goal helps to keep you focused.

• It gives a sense of fulfillment

What goals have you attained this year? How did you feel?

You know the feeling, right?

Setting goals gives you that feeling of fulfillment. Come on. It’s what you have been working on for some time. When it comes to pass, you appreciate yourself for the effort, the focus, and the determination.

• It helps you to take control of the future

With SMART goals, you know what the future looks like. You can even paint it in whichever color you choose. You can see it, smell it, and hear it.

Goals help you control your future. They help you set what you will be in the future and how you will get there.

How do you set goals and achieve them?

It’s one thing setting goals and another thing achieving them. I mean, anybody can set a goal right now. However, what differentiates all these people is the execution part.

Someone can choose to give it some time. Another one acts on them with an effort so intensive that it could be called one from the heart and achieve the goals faster. 

• Write them down

The first thing you need to do is to write your goals down. It’s by far easier to achieve documented goals than those only in your head. You can even choose to jot them down in your notebook and review them daily.

That’s after you visualize them. Visualization helps to make the experience more real. Choose to implement the five senses when creating goals.

For example, you want to live a life of freedom in the next five years [link]. If that’s your goal, choose to visualize it first.

That means you can see that life right in front of you. You can hear the people around you, smell the food from the kitchen cooking, and touch the linings of your classic and elegant hotel. The whole visualization process helps to give focus and clarity.

• Set a structured support system

A support system helps to make your goals a reality. It’s about your wellbeing, your environment, and the people in it.

Start off with your friends. Are your friends helping you attain your personal and business goals? If not, choose to let go of them. Everybody has a goal in life. Choose those who share your goals.

That applies to family members. They are close to you in most cases. Your aim should be to create an environment to enable you to thrive and reach your goals. If you run a company, you need to align the team’s goals with yours.

• Set deadlines

Deadlines help to make you focused and give you energy. You can never achieve anything faster without a clear time frame.

Your deadlines should be within your abilities. The main idea why we called it SMART goals was that they should be achievable and within a time frame. Don’t set a deadline of going to the moon next month if you don’t know anything about space travel.

Don’t set a goal of hitting six figures within a week if you are not yet in 4 figures.

• Be open to failure along the way  

You are bound to fail. Accept it because there is no grey area around it. Some of the goals you are setting might never see the light of the day. Set them, though.

The trick is to accept failure but never change the goal. I mean, you can change the strategy but not the goal. It doesn’t matter how many times you fail; the goal should remain the same.   

Failures along the way give the strategy that will not work. It doesn’t mean you need to abandon everything and call it quit. You just need to devise a new strategy that can allow you to go past that failure.

Tap in with the Wavemakers and tell us what smart goals you’re setting.

One Love, 

Big Marv